As someone who went through IK12 a few cohorts ago, I'd say it was an amazing experience.
The team there blended the depth of general startup knowledge from YC with a huge amount of education-specific coaching/learning/networking.
Although we were part of the 20% (from that article) that didnt make it, we learnt a huge amount, and it helped inspire me to continue to work in the ed-tech space till today.
I do hope that after the merge they can continue to offer the same deep-dive education specific talks/mentors/networks/etc that were so valuable, as it is a space with very different challenges than your typical B2B/consumer app plays.
As a benefit, I suspect the YC "brand" will be a big help to future edtech graduates when it comes to raise money; as typically they've struggled much more to attract investor attention than startups in other verticals.
> Although we were part of the 20% (from that article) that didnt make it, we learnt a huge amount, and it helped inspire me to continue to work in the ed-tech space till today.
I read the article several times but I can't see where they talk about companies that didn't make it.
Also, I am sorry that your company failed. I know from personal experience that it can be hard to get people to use your education product, so glad that you are persevering and still working in that field.
Like @dalyons said, we learned a lot. There was already a lot of overlap between YC and IK12 (for instance, YC partners were regular speakers, and @gralston is a partner at both).
To have them merging while still maintaining an 'edtech' vertical is a natural step that will strengthen both brands. Great news.
Although we were part of the 20% (from that article) that didnt make it, we learnt a huge amount, and it helped inspire me to continue to work in the ed-tech space till today.
I do hope that after the merge they can continue to offer the same deep-dive education specific talks/mentors/networks/etc that were so valuable, as it is a space with very different challenges than your typical B2B/consumer app plays.
As a benefit, I suspect the YC "brand" will be a big help to future edtech graduates when it comes to raise money; as typically they've struggled much more to attract investor attention than startups in other verticals.